Hi, I've been approached by a Graphics and Vinyl company if we would be interested in contract printing for them. I have a few concerns and wanted to see what everyone else thought.

Pros
1) More work for us!
2) We don't have to deal with the customer directly
3) They do not market them selves as a "t-shirt/screen printing" shop. They do vinyl, banners, signs, etc.
4) Swap work. They print stickers, banners, signs etc for us, and we do t-shirts for them.

Cons
1) More work for us! (hahhaha)
2) We make them look good. What I mean is people will think THAT business printed awesome t-shirts and would refer them to other people
3) Reduced cost - I would lower the original cost so they make some money and so do we
4) They are literally about 10 miles away from our shop (potential competition?)

I guess my biggest concern is this. We pride our selves in doing GREAT work and pleasing our customer. I want our jobs to reflect that, so when someone asks our customer "Nice shirt, where did you get it?" they tell them us, not the person we are contract printing for.

Let me know what your thoughts are, please.

#1. Business is business. We're all in business to make money. At least that's part of the reason. If you turn it down they will give their $ to someone else.
#2. They can't be competition if they aren't screen printing.
#3. IF more people order shirts from them that means you make more money. That's a good thing.
#4. It's never a bad thing to let someone else deal with the end user. If that business is happy with your work then any customer complaints is on them.
An idea is to have them agree to let you print your own tags inside the shirt. That way it'll show who printed them. Personally, as long as I was getting substantial business out of the deal then I wouldn't be too concerned about that.
Have a long term contract done stipulating you are the only screen printer for that business. Unless both parties agree to an early termination.

Very True, thanks. More pondering required

I agree, if you can make some money doing it then why not. In the end people will know those guys are subbing out their print work. You can build your reputation behind the scenes as people find out who does their printing. Then you should eventually see people calling you direct.

ApeShirt wrote:#1. Business is business. We're all in business to make money. At least that's part of the reason. If you turn it down they will give their $ to someone else.
#2. They can't be competition if they aren't screen printing.
#3. IF more people order shirts from them that means you make more money. That's a good thing.
#4. It's never a bad thing to let someone else deal with the end user. If that business is happy with your work then any customer complaints is on them.
An idea is to have them agree to let you print your own tags inside the shirt. That way it'll show who printed them. Personally, as long as I was getting substantial business out of the deal then I wouldn't be too concerned about that.
Have a long term contract done stipulating you are the only screen printer for that business. Unless both parties agree to an early termination.

Point #4 is definitely a plus with contract printing (after point #1 of making money, of course). Dealing with the end user can be a major pain - payment, changes, etc. Never thought of having something in writing for an exclusive long term agreement. Nice touch. I just try and focus on doing a good job and not give them any easy reasons for them to leave. I wouldn't sign an exclusive agreement with them though - you, as the contract printer should be able to get more "contract" clients.